Should I use Gmail? Here’s Why You Should.

Google’s Gmail service has been around for awhile, but many people have not taken a peek at it.

Why?

Usually it’s because they’re stuck on another email client – or they might not even be using an email client.

I just switched to using Gmail about a month ago for my personal emails. It’s been a great experience so far and has made a big difference in the way I work and process email. In this post, I’m going to give you three reasons why you should use Gmail if you’ve never done so before.

Note: Gmail is an awesome tool, but in order to use it effectively, you’ll need the right tools. I’ve created a list of my top tools for Gmail that will supercharge your email inbox:

It’s a web-based app

This is really great because Gmail is not actually a desktop app. Instead, it’s an actually link you access in your browser.

The reason why this is great is because it prevents your inbox from being a thing that’s always on your computer notifying you. Instead, it becomes something more like social media where you cannot look at it for periods of time.

This encourages you to only check on email every now and then. As a result, it trains you not to always be in your inbox, which is great because you can actually get stuff done.

Boomerang extension saves time

If you’re a Gmail user right now, you need to use this extension. The reason is that Boomerang does a bunch of really great things for email.

1) Boomerang an email back to your inbox

Let’s say you have an email in your inbox and you don’t want to deal with it right now. A common reason is that you want to give it some time to think how you’re going to respond. Using Boomerang, you can actually have the email be resent to you at a later time. All you have to do is click Boomerang, and you can have it come back a couple hours later when you’re ready to respond.

2) Send emails at a later date

Let’s say there’s an email you want to send but it’s late at night. Suppose it’s to your coworkers or someone who’s working tomorrow and it’s a weekday.

Using Boomerang, you can schedule an email to be sent at 8:00 A.M. so that it’s the first thing in that person’s inbox. To clarify, you’re writing the email now, but then you send the email at 8:00 A.M. tomorrow.

3) It helps you write better emails.

Boomerang has at the bottom right-hand corner a little AI. This little bot will scan your text, and based off the text, give you a score on how likely your email is to get a response. It use all sorts of factors like how many words you use, the reading level, or how many questions you have.

This gives you a gauge on whether you are actually writing emails that are really concise and will get a response. This is very useful if you’re trying to do outreach or you’re emailing people you don’t know.

Google Labs

If you go to the Google Labs tab, you can activate a bunch of great features that will help you manage email a lot better.

One of my favorite features is the auto-advance feature. Let’s say I click an unopened email,I read it, and then I deal with it in some way. What happens is as soon as it goes out, it shows me the next email in that inbox or tab, so I’m not always popping in and out of my inbox.

This lets me go through email without worrying about seeing a big block of unread emails and getting anxiety about it.

Bonus: One-click actions

I was going to mention three reasons, but I’m gonna give a bonus reason: one-click actions.

I like how in Gmail, on the top-left corner, you can see all the actions. As soon as you see an email, you can decide what you want to do with it. It’s not like other apps like Thunderbird, where I have to right-click or click a more button.

Another great thing about Gmail is that it is that it’s not like you see your inbox, and then another tab, like some other clients. As soon as you click an email, it opens just that email. The clean interface lets you focus and really concentrate on responding and cleaning out your inbox.

I hope you’ve enjoyed some of the reasons why I use Gmail. It’s taken me a long time to switch, but it’s been absolutely worth it!

Oh, before I forget…

One more thing.

Being able to use Gmail requires the right tools. If you haven’t already, be sure to click the button below to grab my list of the best Gmail tools.

Do you use Gmail? What features are your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!